Hollywood working out at Boys and Girls Club

The set sign points to production crews on North Common Street on Tuesday. (Spenser Hasak)

LYNN — Hollywood location scouts can’t seem to get enough of Lynn’s historic aesthetics. Over the years the city has been used in a variety of movies. This time, the Boys & Girls Club has its first film feature.

“This is the first time we have been approached for a movie scene due to our vintage building,” said Obie Barker, the executive director of the Boys & Girls Club for the last 19 years.

Although Barker could not provide any specifics on the movie, or the scene being filmed, he did say that the only facility being used in the building was the swimming pool. Karen Rosenfelt, one of the producers of the mystery film, said the club’s pool matched beautifully with scenes they had filmed previously at the abandoned Medfield State Hospital.

“We work with the production department in doing surveys and getting photos from location scouts,” Rosenfelt said. “Then we get location candidates and narrow them down to find the best aesthetic look, which in this case happened to be here in Lynn.”

Rosenfelt, who has been a movie producer since 2005, said the friendly accommodations of the Lynn fire and police departments, as well as people such as Barker, are the reason Hollywood keeps coming back to film in Lynn.

The Boys & Girls Club has been a staple in the Lynn community for many years, and Barker is excited to see its name being credited in a movie. “If it becomes an Oscar-winning movie that will be even better,” he said.

The Boys & Girls Club was not the only location in Lynn that has had a taste of Hollywood in the past week. Antoine Fuqua, an American film director known for his work in “Training Day” and “The Equalizer,” was spotted in Lynn scouting locations for an upcoming movie starring Denzel Washington.

As enthusiastic as Barker was about the opportunity for the Boys & Girls Club being in a movie scene, he was a little more interested in the arrival of Denzel Washington and his film with Fuqua.

“Denzel is the national co-spokesperson for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, so it would be nice for the kids to get a visit from him to our club,” he said.

Bella diGraziaBella diGrazia came onto the Daily Item staff as a full-time reporter in 2018. She is a graduate of University of Massachusetts Boston with a Bachelors of Arts in Communication. She grew up in the city of Lynn and credits a lot of her passion to her upbringing in the North Shore.